Delbridge Langdon Jr. | The Grand Rapids PressFrom left, Jacob Michael, Jim Jacobs and Zack Lee pray together at a Mars Hill Healing Service at the home of Leo Puls. The Grandville church conducts the prayer gatherings at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays.

GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP -- The spacious Lakeshore lawn of Leo Puls is dotted with circles of people sitting on folding chairs at what looks like a neighborhood block party.

Instead, serious prayer is under way here. This is "W," a healing prayer ministry normally conducted at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville every Wednesday at 7 p.m.

"W" could stand for Wednesday, but true believers say it stands for "wrestling," taken from Ephesians 6: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age."

They believe the apostolic ability to manifest physical and psychological healing did not die out when the apostles died.

Leo Puls is a gracious host, sitting in one of the circles, telling one of the people sitting in it, "God will heal you."

At 94, Puls should know: during one healing service, he says his cataracts were healed. Several months ago, he was healed of pneumonia.

"I think it's our historic belief that it (healing) doesn't happen anymore," said Ted Kallman, a lay prayer leader for W and a business consultant by day. "If you don't believe it's going to happen, you are correct."

Kallman, who says he has trained scores of people in healing prayer, is purposely low-key about it, often deferring to others who engage in healing prayer. But he always expects results.

"You need to pray for people with the expectation they will be healed because that's what God is going to do," he said.

He estimates 60 to 80 percent of those healed are healed instantly; the other 20 to 40 percent are healed over time. There may be more prayer sessions needed. "Even Jesus (sometimes) had to pray more than once," Kallman said.

Sometimes the healing isn't exactly what everybody was looking for. Kallman gives the examples of two young people with cancer. One, a 19-year-old man with brain cancer, who was healed and is still well five years later. Conversely, a 17-year-old girl with bone cancer underwent "a transformation in her heart that affected her family, but she still died," he said.

Kallman underwent his own transformation 15 years ago, after reading Mary Geegh's "God Guides." Geegh, a missionary to India, wrote a highly regarded book on listening for the voice of God.

Putting her guidance into practice, Kallman began to pray for others, including their health, and when he saw results, he began to teach others how to pray in the same way.

"My belief is, if you have enough faith to ask for prayer, you have enough faith to be healed," Kallman said.

He doesn't view going to doctors or seeking medical treatment as a lack of faith or an obstacle for healing.

"If God can heal you without medicine, why can't He heal you with medicine?" he asked. He pointed out that Leo Puls was in the hospital just beginning treatment for his pneumonia when Kallman and his wife, Claudia, prayed for him.

While Puls' doctors told him they might have had an incorrect diagnosis, Puls remains convinced it was prayer that healed him.

"One of the beautiful things about W is seeing things for the first time, anew. You walk away and think, 'This is the way church should be,'" said John Hagstrom, who credits healing prayer with ending his alcoholism as well as relieving elbow pain.

More than just Mars Hill congregants attend W. Estimates are that a couple of dozen mainstream denominations may be represented there, but quietly.

"My background, in my denomination, I didn't have this kind of teaching," said Janice Potter, who was praying alongside Puls and Hagstrom.

On Sundays, she still attends the church she purposely did not name. But she is at W as many Wednesdays as she can make.

Orchard Hills Reformed Church and Sunshine Community Church have offshoots of W, Kallman said.

The conference, and Kallman's healing prayer form, has the backing of the Great Lakes Region of the CRC, which sent information about both to about 250 churches throughout all of Michigan and parts of Ohio and Indiana, said Ruth Hiemstra, office coordinator of Home Mission for Great Lakes CRC.

"Ted has demonstrated a consistent healing ministry over years, along with a wonderful ability to hear well from the living God who speaks," wrote Tim Vink, coordinator for church multiplication in the Reformed Church in America, in an e-mail letter of endorsement.

Kallman understands people may be skeptical. Raised a Baptist, he said he was doubtful about healing prayer until he began to listen and practice it.

Now he's helping others, such as Potter and Hagstrom, step out in their faith.

Hagstrom issues a warning to those he prays for: "When the Lord moves, the enemy tries to move against it. When you are healed, the enemy will tell you you haven't been," he said. "You have to claim that authority."

For Potter, the ministry continues to deepen her relationship with God. "There have been people God put in my life and said, 'You have to pray for that person, right now,'" she said.
"This ministry has taught me to be bold. I say to God, 'You've given me this assignment, help me do it,'" she said. "It's a boldness, but it's not aggressive."

Kallman said, "I believe my legacy will be 'All will be healed,' not because of me, but because that's what the Word says. I believe the Word."